JamesBullock
Books:
Jim is a member of JerryWeinberg's SHAPE forum, and a strongly independent contributor. He tends to writing in spurts then sitting back and enjoying the byplay. He's an intriguing mind, and I was glad to finally meet him at AYE 2002. I sometimes think he enjoys nothing more than observing project craziness and muttering, "Verrry interesting! I wonder what they meant by that." His observations from the edge integrate a lot of sources, usually in surprising ways.
When not cooking up software, Jim enjoys cooking for others.
--BobLee 2002.11.16
Thanks Bob, for the kind words. I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to help create those books. And in the colleagues I've met along the way, including you.
Bio and contact info to be on my own little electronic shingle shortly - the edit / update / integrate / ISP / link health / content ball of mud has finally shrunk enough that my Luddite tendencies are at bay. I could have done all this sooner; I chose not to. Laurent has to give me back at least one of my "virtual shingles" if I'm to make this happen.
About Books
With books I have access to the considered and crafted thoughts of many of the finest minds the planet has known, all for the price of a simple meal. Why wouldn't I spend time with books whenever I can? I've been doing so most of my life to my great benefit.
"Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive."
"It does not matter how many books you have, but how good the books are which you have."
- Seneca the younger.
So, in support of my long term addiction I've added this site to my rounds because it seems a likely home for reviews and a source of references and recommendations. A book seller will suggest things you ought to buy because they want to sell them. A book reader will suggest things you ought to read because you will benefit from the reading. Who are you going to listen to?
I'll added a book list: Books in Progress. I'm involved with several which are worth noting here, I think. Most of the people I've met have at least a thing or two they could share with the rest of us to our profit. Everyone even shows occasional Mastery in their own life so why wouldn't they have a book in them? I'd like to hear about the books any of you have in progress, if you are willing.
And if you don't have a book in progress yourself, why don't you?
Got two - one is about how Democracy, Consensus, Anarchy and Nonviolence are all fundamentally the same thing. The other is a book about understanding and responding to consciousness as our oxygen challenge (see http://ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?ConsciousnessIsOurOxygenChallenge ) - a short history and exploration of domination/Taker?/Breaker? culture (as described by WalterWink?, RianeEisler?, DanielQuinn, SharifAbdullah?, MarshallRosenberg?, others?), then lots of how-to specifics and resources about moving on to a new (partnership/Leaver?+/Mender?) culture. Maybe it's one book, i dunno. Little scraps have been written around the web, and there's plenty of (personal and library) research remaining to do. --JohnAbbe
Currently reading (incomplete list):
- AntiPatterns? - WilliamHBrown? et. al.
- ChangeYourMindAndKeepTheChange? - SteveAndreas?, ConniraeAndreas?. Current entry in my "all things NLP" survey.
- WorkInProgress? - MichaelEisner? with TonySchwartz?
- RefactoringImprovingTheDesignOfExistingCode - MartinFowler
- CreatingAnEnvironmentForSuccessfulProjects? RobertJGraham?, RandallLEnglund?. Tedious so far. Maybe it picks up later.
- WeavingTheWeb? - TimBernersLee?
- more . . .
My incomplete capitulation to learning Java(TM):
- LearningJava? - PatrickNiemeyer? & JonathanKnudsen?
- TheJava?(TM)ProgrammingLanguage? - KenArnold?, JamesGosling?. The 1996 edition.
- JavaInANutshell - DavidFlanagan?. Again the 1996 version, addressing Java 1.0
- ConcurrentProgrammingInJava?(TM) - Doug Lea
- TheElementsOfJava?(TM)Style - by most of Rogue Wave's engineering organization around 1999.
- Still to grab: "Java(TM)LanguageSpecification?" credited to BillJoy? (Editor), GuySteele?, JamesGosling?, GiladBracha?
Recent Reads (Incomplete list, as of November, 2003):
- MaslowOnManagement (Reread) - AbrahamMaslow
- MaslowBusinessReader (Reread) - AbrahamMaslow
- ProjectRetrospectives - NormKerth. Reread
- TheMagicOfConflict? - ThomasFCrum?. Reread
- TheDiceMan? - LukeRheinhard?. Good, fast, breezy read.
- WhatShouldIDoWithMyLife - PoBronson?. Adequate.
- DifficultConversations - Interesting conversational model, from some folks associated with the Harvard Negotiation Project.
- TheClockOfTheLongNow - Another StewartBrand? project.
- TimeForAChange - Latest installment in my investigation of all things NLP.
- AngryWhitePyjamas - Where a journalist undertakes a year's training in Yoshinkan Aikiso.
- AugustinesLaws? - Norman R. Augusting. Actually pretty funny and pretty illuminating.
- MythsToLiveBy? JosephCampbell?. Sort of a survey of his work and point of view. These are assembled talks delivered at the Cooper Union in NYC, so have that marvelous feel of oratory.
- TheAgeOfParadox CharlesHandy?. Follow on after TheAgeOfUnreason. I ended up using one of his examples: "Chinese Contracts" as the title for an article submitted to the AYE conference site.
- UnderstandingComputersAndCognition FernandoFlores?, TerryWinograd?. Well worth the read. In addition to what I learned, I feel like I made some new friends given the way we read this one together. DisclosingNewWorlds? is next in this topic area.
- TheOtherMindsEye? AllenCSeargent?. Current installment of my now tedious inventory of the NLP canon. Trying to have one of these in progress at all times.
- TeachingWithYourMouthShut DonaldLFinkel?. In prep for working with CSE403 Software Engineering, at the University of Washington again. Utterly fascinating, transforming book.
- TheNoondayDemon (An Analysis of Depression) - AndrewSolomon?.
- FreedomAnarchyAndTheLaw (Reread) - RichardTaylor?. Very useful, insightful dissection of theories of law and government.
- DontSendAResume A model for getting a job based on identifying someone who has a problem to solve and offering to solve it for them.
- MovingZen? (Reread) CWNicol. Story of a Westerner studying Karate-do in Japan. Situation is similar to ZenInTheArtOfArchery?. Nicol is a bit of an adventurer, compared to the philosophy student who wrote Zen . . . In some ways Nicol's book is a precursor to the whole conscious competence canon, like Leonard's Mastery for example.
- OnBecomingALeader? (Reread) WarrenBennis?. A philosophical study of becoming a leader. Title is the inspiration for OnBecomingATechnicalLeader? by JerryWeinberg.
- MonstersAndMagicalSticks? - StevenHeller?, TerrySteele?. Part of my ongoing slog through all things NLP & related. A renowned and effective practicing hypnotist talks about the mechanics of hypnotism. Far better written than most of the field. The authors, StevenHeller? in particular feel like another MiltonErikson? original and skilled practitioners.
- TheSatirApproachToCommunication? - JohannaSchwab?, MicheleBaldwin?, JaneGerber?, MariaGomori?, VirginiaSatir. Communication workshop structure and patterns.
- VirginiaSatirThePatternsOfHerMagic? - SteveAndreas?. This is a transcript of one of her demonstration sessions with an introduction inventorying in NLP terms the techniques she uses and an in-line deconstruction of the transcript itself. Very well done. This session is also widely available on video tape, making this a unique resource.
- WhisperingInTheWind? - CarmenBosticStClair?, JohnGinder?. Current state of NLP according to one of it's originators and a recent leading contributor. Heavy on the story of the practice, and the structures it embodies.
- MagicOfNLPDemystifiesd? - ByronLewis?, FrankPucelik?. Much more accessible than most of the canon. Yet another element of my research into the NLP canon.
- TheOriginOfConsciousnessInTheBreakdownOfTheBicameralMind (Reread) JulianJaynes?. Weaves an extended theory combining history, anthropology, neurobiology, psychology, and philosophy, proposing that reflective consciousness as we understand it is a recent phenomena. Fascinating read.
- Slack - TomDeMarco
- TheDeadline - TomDeMarco. He's gotten even better at parables about software development. Trying to identify the cameos is entertaining.
Backlog (very incomplete list):
Experience shows that one shelf unit - about 10 or 12 linear feet ( 3-4 meters) - is the right amount of backlog for me. Checks and balances are in place.
- When I buy a book, thinking "that would be interesting" and there is nowhere to put it, I tend to buy fewer books.
- When I think of a kind of book I would like to read, and there isn't an appropriate volume sitting in the backlog, I go foraging.
It works out. A very, very incomplete list of the top of the backlog pile:
- CriticalChain - EliyahuMGoldratt
- TheBookOfTheDie? - LukeRhinehart?
- DrPeelingsPrinciplesOfManagement? - NicPeeling?
- WaltzingWithBears - Another from TomDeMarco, & TimothyLister
- TheBlindMenAndTheElephant? - In the preface, David thanks me for opting out of the editorial & review process. I'm not sure what to make of that, exactly.
- ItsNotLuck - Eliyahu MGoldratt. Another in the ongoing point of view.
- FiniteAndInfiniteGames - JamesPCarse?
- TheoryInPractice? - ChrisArgyris? & DonaldASchon?. There's a combination.
- TheHaystackSyndrome? - EliyahuMGoldratt.
- TheGenerationsOfCorning? - DavidDyer? and DanielGross?
- DisclosingNewWorlds? - FernandoFlores?
- Much, much more . . .
Books in Progress:
The stuff I write feels more like reporting to me - I feel like a ParticipantObserver?, vs. the vehicle for some grand ParadigmShift. I really do feel like I'm just eavesdropping on TheGreatConversation, and reporting in sometimes. Most of the time I write because I've noticed something and writing helps me get it clearer in my own mind, then I see what I can offer from that to others.
- Roundtable on Technical Management - Third in the Roundtable series from Dorset House, edited from SHAPE forum content. This one is supposed to hit print late in 2003. I'm not the lead editor so I just have to sit back and do what Marie tells me. My big task was coming up with ideas for the cartoons.
- Cybernetic Project Management - Working title only. I've finally discovered what seems like a sufficient description for what successful project managers actually do. The various literatures seem insufficient to me - they're missing something. So this project elaborates a model of project management that accounts for all the several flavors of project management literature, and allows for an inventory of stuff I've seen work that doesn't fit anyone's "model". The contents here are almost perfectly unlike the contents of StructuralCyberneticManagement the fictitous book that figures in TomDeMarco's TheDeadline.
- Analytic Patterns - Working title only. Pattern framework for how analytical systems deliver value, vs. delivering pretty graphs and histograms in several dimensions. Arose from the notion that the discussions of Analytics are mostly technology: "Data Warehouse", "Operational Data Store", "Star Schema", "Data Cube". So why do we do this? What's the payoff?
- The Business of Testing - Working title only. It seems to me that while there are lots of ways that testing fails through technique or technology, most of the time when testing fails (including failing by being absent when it would be a good thing) the problem is organizational, not technical. Testing is a function in a business. So like any other, it's got to add value. So who are the customers, consumers, and supporters of testing? What's in it for them? What value does it deliver? I think we don't understand the answers to these questions nearly as well as we think we do. At the moment this one is a collection of think pieces without a reasonable sequence or organizing theme, other than "testing as a function in a business."
- Scientific Computing Change & Capability - Review of a colleague's rather dense manuscript on a model for the adoption of "maturity" in "scientific computing" - using computers as part of a research activity. The 5 level frame of CMM is very loosely used, but aligned with the phases of the Satir change model. Book is remarkably dense - author is a Ph D, Math, who works in experimental physics. His use of models is precise, and sometimes breathtaking in it's shift of logical levels. I'm learning a lot from the material as is. Listed because the reading, review, and editorial / comment is a whole lot of work, even though I am not the author.
Drop me a note at jbullock@rare-bird-ent.com if you want to know about articles, presentations and the like when they come out.
TheAuthorsDue, and I suppose
MyBookAboutMeByMeMyself
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